Florida Vacation Rentals Legislation Clash
Travel and Tourism is big business for Florida. Visitors to Florida contribute an average of $333 million per day to Florida’s economy, according to the state’s government website. As a result, there are competing interests when it comes to vacation rentals in the Sunshine State.
The Florida Legislature finalized a bill on March 7, 2024, that limits the extent to which local government can oversee vacation rental properties. This bill has raised considerable objections from multiple agencies.
The new legislative bill can be read here. The Jacksonville Business Journal explains it this way, “The bill would preempt regulation of vacation rentals to the state while allowing local governments to have short-term rental registration programs that meet certain parameters… The bill would scrap city ordinances enacted after 2011, doing away with registration programs already adopted by many coastal communities as the use of online platforms such as Airbnb ballooned.”
Opposition of the Bill
Florida Realtors
The full perspective of Florida Realtors can be read in this article. A notable quote taken from the article is as follows: “The bill fails to strike a fair balance between the rights of private property owners to rent their property on a short-term basis and the ability of local governments to regulate these rentals”. The Florida Alliance for Vacation Rentals has also spoken out in opposition to this bill.
City Mayors
The News Service of Florida quoted Melbourne Beach Mayor as saying, “It’s an existential threat to single-family zoning. Because having a mini-motel pretending like its single-family zoning right in the heart of every single-family-zoned street is not single-family zoning. … It’s a commercial enterprise. Period.”
Our own Jacksonville Beach Vice Mayor Sandy Golding also has concerns about this new bill. The tension she expresses is that the bill would limit local officials in being able to ensure the safety and protection of visitors. Likewise, the new bill would discard previously adopted city ordinances.
In Favor of the Bill
While Florida Realtors is asking Governor Ron DeSantis to veto the bill, the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association is asking him to sign it. Their argument asserts that there is an unknown number of unlicensed vacation rental listings in Florida. In creating a state-wide regulatory system for vacation rentals, it would help to “close the gap between what is licensed and what is listed”.
Fluid Realty
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